In-house attorneys occupy a unique position at the intersection of the legal and business communities. This gives them the opportunity to use their skills and dedication to take on the responsibility of improving and enhancing the legal landscape. How can they do this? By becoming active in causes that matter to them. This kind of involvement in what has been termed “cause marketing” has taken off in the legal world, where lawyers can leverage their reputations and platforms to elevate causes they care about — benefitting not just their personal brands and their companies, but also doing some good in their communities. With groups like Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice, a start-up incubator for attorneys that seeks to innovate in the legal profession while helping provide access to justice for underserved communities, more general counsel are fully exploring and claiming their places as leaders in their companies and their communities while also enriching the world around them.
Shifting Expectations of In-House Lawyers
In-house attorneys are more than “just” lawyers. They are leaders, businesspeople, simultaneously legal specialists and generalists and directors of the triage often involved in supporting their business needs. Successful general counsel have harnessed these skills and expanded on the work that is important to them through implementing cause marketing as a part of their personal marketing campaigns. Through this type of community presence and service, they continue to enhance their positions of prominence in the legal community while maintaining the kind of competitive edge in their practices that leads to lasting career success and satisfaction.
Cause marketing is exactly what it sounds like: aligning business with personal interests and passions to ultimately do good in the world. There are several ways that individual in-house attorneys and larger corporate legal departments can engage in cause marketing. Many choose to form alliances with nonprofit organizations or charities that work in an area of interest for them. These nonprofit organizations often lack sufficient funding and struggle to raise awareness of their work due to the amount of time, effort and expertise needed to gain and maintain public interest.
The help and dedication of an in-house attorney as a member or sponsor can encourage volunteerism, increase awareness and improve funding for crucial projects. The time and effort involved from the in-house attorney is often inversely proportional to the impact they can make. While some in-house counsel choose to contribute to a cause solely by donating money, the career-savvy ones take it a step further by running personal brand-centered marketing campaigns that highlight their dedication to a cause, a volunteer program, or outreach organization that aligns with their professional and personal values.
All attorneys should regard themselves as their own “brands” within their organizations. These brands require constant attention to make sure they are aligned with and serving an attorney’s needs and advancing their career. Bringing specialized talents and passions to important causes only serves to reinforce that personal brand, promote the attorney and their company and have the added effect of doing some real good in the process. Often in-house counsel begin their cause marketing campaigns by simply donating money or time to a cause without forming a collaboration with an organization. While this can still grow their reputations and allow them to make a difference, forming a deeper collaboration with the cause and organization can prove to be a more beneficial partnership for all involved.
For example, LEJ welcomed founding members who hold prominent roles in the Colorado legal landscape, including non-profit organizations, large law firms, the judiciary, law schools, marketing companies and legal entrepreneurs running successful solo practices. Each member brought a special expertise that was crucial in developing and launching the first legal incubator in Colorado. Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice has also collaborated on projects with in-house counsel who have lent their time and expertise to help the organization develop crucial development strategies and garner necessary support in the community.
As LEJ has grown from an idea in 2014 to a formal non-profit organization in 2018 to a fully functioning legal incubator with eight attorneys in 2019, the attorneys who donated their time to its development have been able to see their contributions come to fruition and can clearly measure the impact of the good they have helped create in the community — in the number of LEJ attorneys currently running successful practices and the people they have served through those practices and pro bono clients who otherwise would have been denied access to the legal services they desperately needed. Not only did the volunteer attorneys, who were cause marketing possibly without even realizing it, help create a new and important entity, but they have also added to their own personal brands by being involved in this cause — something that has been more of an afterthought for them but nevertheless an extremely important benefit. They have also become part of a larger community of like-minded attorneys and business owners through board membership, committee involvement, training and mentoring, something that has proven both personally and professionally rewarding.
Picking a Cause and Executing a Plan
A key part of cause marketing for in-house lawyers is choosing the right organization. Attorneys should take a broad look at social causes that align with their background, brand, or previous experience in private practice. While collaborations between general counsel and unrelated organizations can yield positive results, the path is often much smoother and the results more organic and sincere when the cause is linked to the attorney’s area of expertise. For example, an in-house attorney for a tech company might partner with an incubator that provides insight to start-up legal practices. A general counsel for a school district could partner with a local organization that provides education and tools to students in need. Regardless of where in-house attorneys decide to donate their valuable time and expertise, the chosen cause should also be personally important. When attorneys select a cause that fits their worldview, they are more likely to go above and beyond in their efforts to support it, with ultimately greater and more satisfying professional, personal and wide-reaching results.
Attorneys are extremely familiar with the importance of doing their research and the process of choosing the right organization is no exception. Attorneys need to be wary of skipping this essential step. Collaborating with an organization that misuses funds, has a history of decisions that cause public relations issues, or simply lacks the infrastructure to support effective outreach is often a waste of a company’s money, time and effort. Even worse, being affiliated with an organization that is tied up in controversy can negatively impact an attorney’s and company’s reputation. In-house attorneys also need to research and be aware of the regulations surrounding business involvement with charitable organizations to be sure they are in compliance.
From there, an in-house attorney can find many ways to contribute meaningfully to the organization’s missions and objectives. Non-profits are usually hungry for attorneys to join their boards to contribute to reputation building, fundraising and also legal insight into their matters. An in-house attorney or corporate legal department can provide financial giving but should go beyond that. By working with the organization’s leadership, in-house attorneys can find ways to get involved in community events, provide legal support or services on a limited basis and strengthen the partnership. The goal is to provide genuine support for the cause and make a real impact in the community.
Getting Connected in the Legal Community
While exploring opportunities in cause marketing, in-house attorneys can look at local resources that connect attorneys interested in supporting their community with organizations open to collaboration. For example, LEJ’s motto is “Doing Well by Doing Good,” and this mission is an integral part of all that it does, as evidenced in the resources, training, mentoring and support that LEJ provides to the socially conscious legal entrepreneurs who serve the underserved population in Colorado.
Organizations working hard to enhance the community would enjoy support in their efforts from general counsel to further the message and mission of their organization, which helps bridge the justice gap in our state. By adopting a cause marketing campaign to bolster their in-house practice, in-house lawyers can also “do well by doing good” – and isn’t that something that all attorneys should strive for?
As an added bonus, the common wisdom that those who give also receive has been upheld in many data-driven studies. Volunteers give of their time and expertise — and in return they receive not only the feeling of doing good, but also measurable health benefits in the form of lowered stress, a healthier mind and body, a lower occurrence of anxiety and depression and even an increase in chances for greater employment and career advancement.
The personal and professional benefits of cause marketing are too strong to ignore. In-house counsel should take full advantage of the many opportunities to set a goal, get involved and enjoy the many benefits of doing well by doing good.
— Laurie Gilbertson is Executive Director and Board Member, Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice and Owner, Tribeca Blue Consulting, and Meranda Vieyra is a board member of Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice and owner of Denver Legal Marketing.